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The hospital was originally a specialist unit for the care of patients with tuberculosis

A Victorian hospital is being sold off by NHS bosses in Greater Manchester to be turned into flats.

St Anne's Hospital in Bowdon, which has been empty since 2004, was put up for sale to help fund the new Altrincham General Hospital nearby.

A sale has been agreed in principle with the PJ Livesey Group, which intends to restore the buildings and convert them into luxury homes.

The sale is subject to planning permission being granted.

The buildings are in the Devisdale conservation area and are subject to a strict planning brief from Trafford Council.

The authority wants to ensure the buildings are preserved, and there are also a number of tree preservation orders in place.

'New life'

The Board of Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust, which is selling the hospital, said if all goes well Trafford Council could grant planning permission by the end of the year, allowing the sale to complete a few months later.

Tristram Reynolds, Director of Estates at the Trust, said: "The hospital is in a prime, residential area at the heart of Bowdon and we are delighted that The PJ Livesey Group plans to restore these historic buildings and give them new life by converting them into homes."

A spokesman for The PJ Livesey Group said: "We will be working closely with local planners and conservation groups to reveal and restore the original historic buildings and to create new homes in this wonderful setting."

When it formally opened as St Anne's Hospital in 1885 it was a specialist unit for the care of patients with tuberculosis.

It was the only free sanatorium in Britain and had space for 16 patients.